Derek Shelton Explains What Went Wrong in Twins' Loss to Padres

For five innings on Saturday night, the Minnesota Twins looked like a team ready to take another leap in the wild card race.

Three homers in the first two innings put them in front, the lead grew to 5-1, and the game felt like the response the road trip needed.

Then the seventh inning arrived, and by the end of it the Twins had handed the Padres four runs and eventually a 7-5 loss, their second straight defeat at Petco Park and one of the most painful of the season.

Luke Keaschall opened the scoring with his eighth homer in the first, Brooks Lee and Kaelen Culpepper went back-to-back in the second, and RBI singles from Kody Clemens and Keaschall made it 5-1 by the fourth.

Dean Kremer, the deadline addition from Baltimore, gave the Twins a strong start, striking out five over 5.1 innings and leaving with the lead, and A.J. Minter recorded the last two outs of the sixth to keep it at 5-2.

The seventh undid all of it against reliever Andrew Morris.

Jake Cronenworth ripped a two-run double to cut the lead to 5-4, the tying run scored when a throw to third was not handled on Manny Machado's fielder's choice, and Ty France followed with the single that put San Diego ahead.

Fernando Tatis Jr. added another run-scoring hit in the eighth.

Morris was charged with four runs, one earned, in his lone inning, and the bullpen and defense had combined to waste a lead the offense spent four innings building.

The manager saw the loss coming before the seventh ever started.

"We started out swinging the bats, and then we didn't add on. We had an opportunity to add on, and then we just could not hold them at bay," Derek Shelton said.

Lee, who is hitting .247 with 19 homers this season, and Keaschall combined for five hits and two homers on the night, but Minnesota went quiet after the fourth while the Padres kept grinding out at-bats.

The quiet stretch left the door open, and San Diego does not need it open for long.

The frustrating part is how close this team remains.

At 63-67, the Twins sit one game out of the final American League wild card spot, with the Rangers and Guardians sharing it and the Blue Jays a half game up on Minnesota.

The front office went into buy-mode at the deadline and held onto its top prospect while doing it, so the pieces for a run are in place.

A one-game deficit in late August is nothing, which is why a giveaway on this scale stings so much, and Minnesota has now dropped two straight winnable games in San Diego.

The gap is small, but it will not stay small on its own.

The finale comes Sunday afternoon with Bailey Ober facing Walker Buehler, and the Twins need it before opening a series against the Athletics on Monday.